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Kam Tin , or Kam Tin Heung, is an area in the New Territories
New Territories

New Territories, abbreviated to NT or N.T., is a region in Hong Kong excluding Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and Stonecutters Island. Historically, it is the region described in The Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory....
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong

Hong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located in Southern China in East Asia, bordering the province of Guangdong to the north and facing the South China Sea to the east, west and south....
. It is at the north of Tai Mo Shan
Tai Mo Shan

Tai Mo Shan has the highest mountain in Hong Kong, with an altitude of 957 m. It is located approximately at the geographical centre of the New Territories....
 and east of Yuen Long
Yuen Long

Yuen Long is an area and town located in the northwest of Hong Kong, on the Yuen Long Plain. To its west lie Hung Shui Kiu and Ha Tsuen, to the south Shap Pat Heung and Tai Tong, to the east Au Tau and Kam Tin, and to the north Nam Sang Wai....
. It was formerly known as Sham Tin.

Many of Kam Tin's residents are from the Tang Clan, who are of the Punti
Punti

The Punti, a rough transliteration of the Cantonese term for "original locality," refers to the Yue Chinese-speaking populations of Guangdong province in southern China....
 culture, not Hakka
Hakka

The Hakka people are a subgroup of the Han Chinese people based in the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangxi and Fujian in China and speaking the Hakka language....
 as is often misattributed. Kat Hing Wai
Walled villages of Hong Kong

Most of the walled villages in Hong Kong are located in the New Territories.A walled village is a kind of traditional building which is completely surrounded by thick defensive walls, protecting the residents from the attack of wild animals and enemies....
, is the most famous walled settlement located in Kam Tin. It is a compact village comprised mainly of narrow row-houses and temples separated by small winding alleys.






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Kam Tin , or Kam Tin Heung, is an area in the New Territories
New Territories

New Territories, abbreviated to NT or N.T., is a region in Hong Kong excluding Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and Stonecutters Island. Historically, it is the region described in The Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory....
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong

Hong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located in Southern China in East Asia, bordering the province of Guangdong to the north and facing the South China Sea to the east, west and south....
. It is at the north of Tai Mo Shan
Tai Mo Shan

Tai Mo Shan has the highest mountain in Hong Kong, with an altitude of 957 m. It is located approximately at the geographical centre of the New Territories....
 and east of Yuen Long
Yuen Long

Yuen Long is an area and town located in the northwest of Hong Kong, on the Yuen Long Plain. To its west lie Hung Shui Kiu and Ha Tsuen, to the south Shap Pat Heung and Tai Tong, to the east Au Tau and Kam Tin, and to the north Nam Sang Wai....
. It was formerly known as Sham Tin.

Many of Kam Tin's residents are from the Tang Clan, who are of the Punti
Punti

The Punti, a rough transliteration of the Cantonese term for "original locality," refers to the Yue Chinese-speaking populations of Guangdong province in southern China....
 culture, not Hakka
Hakka

The Hakka people are a subgroup of the Han Chinese people based in the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangxi and Fujian in China and speaking the Hakka language....
 as is often misattributed. Kat Hing Wai
Walled villages of Hong Kong

Most of the walled villages in Hong Kong are located in the New Territories.A walled village is a kind of traditional building which is completely surrounded by thick defensive walls, protecting the residents from the attack of wild animals and enemies....
, is the most famous walled settlement located in Kam Tin. It is a compact village comprised mainly of narrow row-houses and temples separated by small winding alleys. The wall was erected to fend off pirates and bandits who were common in the area in the last millennium.

There is also the Yi Tai study hall in Kam Tin. It was built by the Tangs for the local students to study for the Chinese civil servants qualifications. It also houses a temple to the god of study, Man Cheung.

History

Kam Tin is the origin of the biggest indigenous Tang Clan
Tang Clan

The Tang Clan is one of the Great Five Clans of Hong Kong. The others are Man , Hau , Pang and Liu . The Tangs originated from Jishui of Jiangxi province and are considered to be Punti, as they were the first immigrants to settle in what is now Hong Kong from what is now mainland China in the 11th century....
 in Hong Kong. The ancestor of indigenous Tang, Tang Hon Fat settled his family from Jiangxi
Jiangxi

is a southern province of China of the People's Republic of China, spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south....
 to Sham Tin in 973.

During the reign of Shen Chung (1572 - 1620) of Ming dynasty
Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty , or Empire of the Great Ming , was the ruling Dynasties in Chinese history of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty....
, Sham Tin was renamed Kam Tin.

Further reading

  • Lee Ho Yin and Lynne D. DiStefano, A Tale of Two Villages: The Story of Changing Village Life in the New Territories (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press), 2002.